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Without wanting to go on about myself I have Asperger's and ADHD so I struggle to switch off the 'feed' if that makes sense and it can lead to stress/anxiety.

I've been thinking about meditating as a solution but don't know much about it and don't want to do it wrong.

Anyone here a meditator? Did it help you feel healthier and your mind feel less cluttered? Is there a guide I should get hold of? Do I have to move to Dalston now and take classes at a reclaimed Buddhist centre?

and it will help with your busy brain, but it can be difficult to get used to at first but the benefits are subtle and cumulative.
there are lots of types and there are probably classes near you.
i would recommend going to a buddhist centre and doing some kind of basic vipassana meditation, and avoid any kind of new age 'visualisation' kind of stuff. go somewhere donation-based. it's helpful to have someone you can ask things like 'i'm rubbish at this, why am i rubbish at this?'

Meditation should be approached as a straightforward physical practice, like learning to juggle or play the piano. The mental benefits will follow, so don't worry about whether you're getting them or not. You are, you just might not realise it at first. Just go for something that bypasses all the mystical bullshit and focuses on the technique (Vipassana is extremely practical and effective). You'll encounter some Buddhist teaching/philosophy along the way, and that's not a bad thing either.

Be patient, stick at it. Don't get frustrated with your apparent inability to get it at first, the key is patience.

On the second time I meditated I had this weird moment toward the end where it felt like my brain bubbled and I had this white noise flash. The lady running the course said that this is likely because I had tension caused by hearing a loud noise. Little did she know I'd recently seen MBV.

I think it has helped me a little. It's a very simple process. You probably don't NEED to go on a course to do it. Just sitting for half an hour and letting your mind wander until it quietens helps.

put on some calming repetitive music on the headphones, close my eyes, focus on my breathing and try to clear my mind. i'm sure i'm not doing it properly of anything but it think it helps a little bit, feels a bit like resetting your brain a bit, clearing out any junk.

i'd recommend it - only been doing it for a couple of weeks, but i think my mind is slightly clearer for it

Read up a lot about it. I'm very highly wound up all the time. Several things I've learnt as a beginner that might help:

1) When you start it’s much more difficult than people say. Your mind speeds up not slows down. It’s also fairly unnatural and you have to kinda suppress yourself, which in itself is a failure. But keep at it as, like a glass of water beign carried, when you settle it, it eventually evens out.

2) Use a clock / timer. I have “Mind” on my phone. It’s a really simple app that’s bascially a timer.

3) I found it really difficult to focus until I read somewhere about concentrating on a point between your eyes, slightly in front of your face (with eyes closed, that’s how I do it anyway). That helped. It wasn’t just like I had my eyes shut.

4) Do concentrate on your breathing from the abdomen - but don’t worry about deep breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth all the time. That shit gets stressful. Big slow deep breaths are great but if you try to do a 10 minute session like that it’s hectic and you end up feeling all stressed, or at least I did. Do some deep breathing but don’t worry aobut relaxing into a state of shallowish slow, calm breath from the abdomen.

5) I found before bed was the best time as it really helps me sleep. But I’d make sure I didn’t meditate then fall asleep. I’m meditate for anywhere between 5-20 mins sitting up, away from the bed and then get ready for bed, then sleep. Apparently I read somewhere you shouldn't meditate then fall asleep. Probably because then you’re confusing meditation with just kipping.

6) So listen to music if it helps. Whatever makes you zone out and think of nothing. There’s great stuff on youtube, just ambient stuff and I actually find it helps. I also do neck stretching and stuff whilst doing it so don’t panic about stilling perfectly still. It’s not about being motionless, it’s about unravelling the big ball of tension in your mind and keeping that still.

7) Transcendental mediation by all accounts is utter turd. I’ve read lots and lots into it and you have to pay a lot of money for someone to tell you how to meditate which everyone knows inately anyway. You have to pay the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (or his business) for a word that you chant. I’ve read lots about it and apparently it’s basically made up. No relevance to you. Just a nice sounding work to repeat over and over. There isn’t some special key. There’s a lot of publicity for TM at the moment with Brand and David Lynch but anyone who says you have to pay thousands of pounds to reach enlightenment is full of shit. The benefits they’re talking about aren’t unique to TM, they’re meditation in general.

1) yeah
2) timer isn't really ideal, it's just something else you'll be conscious of. it's good practice to get used to it without, doesn't have to be exactly the same length every time.
3) whatever works for you but this sounds like you're concentrating too hard, which will prevent you from really relaxing.
4) this depends on what kind of meditation you're doing. deep breaths can be helpful to get into it but you aren't supposed to be forcing yourself to breathe a certain way. labelling the breath in and out is possibly the simplest form of meditation and not a bad way to get started.
5) meditating before bed might help you sleep but means you'll be mainly benefiting from it in your sleep. if you meditate during the day you'll feel the benefits of it while awake AND you'll sleep better because of it.
6) don't listen to music. terrible idea.
7) you can't say it's utter turd and then say it's basically the same as other types of meditation. it's just another technique. it doesn't cost thousands of pounds, among other misinformation.

And the idea of getting your own chant is complete cobblers. I take issue with it as it's essentially a money making scam.

Music - as in ambient sound - is pretty good I find, but whatever works best. I used this the other day when the neighbour's kids were screaming their fucking heads off the little bastards:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPoqNeR3_UA

they tell you straight up that it's one best suited to what you want from it but that it's NOT unique, possibly stressing it because so many people have this misconception.
re: money. with other meditation practices/groups i've gone to where you donate or share the cost of the room/pay per session, the price of learning TM is comparable to doing somewhere in the region of 20 of those sessions. you do the course and then can go back to meditate every week for the rest of your life for free if you so wish, or you can not.
they aren't "selling enlightment", they're selling you a course wherein they teach you a complete technique one-to-one with an instructor.
as ever, your information is second hand and wrong. they have free introductory sessions where you could have gone and asked them all these things for yourself if you were arsed, rather than reading some "truther" minded garbage on the internet.

I've done lots of research on the cost. It might be second hand as in I haven't experienced paying for TM myself, but only as much as it's second hand that I can tell you how much a sofa costs from John Lewis.

and it also requires a lot of patience. I'd recommend setting aside a bit of your time every morning to do it, it's a good start to the day and helps you begin in a good frame of mind. Also a good idea if you can't sleep I find. Mind you, I'm typing this message out at 2am so what do I know.

I completely get why people big up TM over other stuff. The way it's all about the effortlessness and not beating yourself up if your mind wanders, but recognising and moving back to the mantra is great.
As is having a mantra to focus you, rather than your breathing, or a chair or something.
Do it for 20 mins, twice a day. Once you get used to it it's one of the most enjoyable things going, you feel like you've had a valium afterwards. But, y'know, using your mind instead of drugs.

Of course from doing a bit of reading, they're not actually "unique", they've just traditionally been doled out depending on a person's age.

They change depending on when the instructor was taught as well, and they've probably shuffled the mantra deck, so to speak, recently, but let's be honest, it's meant to be an arbitrary sound anyway. That's the point! I just picked the one corresponding to my age from the 1987 list.

Occasionally instructional Youtube videos turn up from people that had paid for the course and don't think others should have to, and they teach it in about ten minutes. Of course they're taken down quicksharp.

and aren't that autodidactic. i occasionally go to meetings and there are people who've been doing it for months who still struggle with it. many who felt some initial benefits but then get really irate that the good aspects dont' happen on cue every time. some people need that tuition. liek so many have attested to in this thread, it's a difficult thing to get used to at first.
that article up there 'why i quit' reads like the equivalent of the 'why are venues so horrible?' thread on here. proper bedwetty.

And it is good to have proper structures and instructions in place. Some people need that in general or else they think too much/ panic, which means you're gonna run into difficulty meditating straight away. And I guess, to a certain extent, parting with a fee would help people feel there's a legitimacy to the whole thing, and that they're 'invested' in it, so more likely to stick with it.
Just seems awful steep for what's essentially an ancient technique.

metta bhavana meditation involves focusing on spreading feelings of love/positivity to people (starting with a friend, then a neutral person, then an enemy). It's quite focused and 'scripted', very different from just clearing your mind or whatever people think of when they think of meditation.

Similarly mindfullness meditation has a quite prescriptive pattern and routine: you focus on your out-breath for a period, then your in-breaths, then the whole breath and then where the breath first enters your body, it's not just 'zoning out'.

http://www.getsomeheadspace.com/ It's a free app and it's 10 minutes a day for 10 days, then you have to pay for further stuff. It guides you through what to think about which I find helpful, and I tend to be very relaxed by the end, should probably be doing it earlier in the day to get more of a benefit though.

i don't really feel like it's something i need for stress/emotional purposes, but i could really use something that might help my ability to focus on stuff for more than 10 minutes at a time without my mind wandering

because I have a deep and burning (and largely irrational) hatred for one of my housemates. Meditation can kind of slough that off whenever it builds up to being genuinely troubling. Plus normal meditation is great - I was taking anti-depressants for a few years to deal with (or at least just avoid) panic attacks etc. and since stopping taking them the meditation's really helped keep me on an even keel. I'm stupid and lazy though so I often forget/can't be bothered, even though it's easily the most valuable twenty minutes I could spend in a day.

Re: tips - everything ethricdouble etc. have said up there ^ but also, my ma, sister and I went on a meditation retreat (not LME) to a place called Dhanakosa in Scotland. It was majestic. It's pay what you can (I think £75 deposit and then after that it's up to you) for a week's meditating, yoga, sitting around in the obscenely beautiful countryside, going for walks, eating well, etc. Most wholesome shit. Apart from some slightly passive-aggressive holidayers (who, to be fair, were probably just going through some rough stuff), it was ace, so if you have the time maybe consider doing something akin to that as like an INTENSIVE CALMING COURSE. Obviously they say some Buddhist stuff at you but not in a pleading or intrusive way, plus Buddhism seems pretty on point with a lot of this stuff anyway so won't do you any harm to hear it.